A resolution co-sponsored by board President Dan Kelly and member Steve Phillips proposes phasing out the program, which has been in the San Francisco school system since 1919. About 1,500 students take part in Junior ROTC, including 263 at Balboa.

The proposal, to be heard Tuesday night, calls for the creation of a task force to develop alternative programs that build leadership skills.

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Phillips said the district should discontinue its support of ROTC because it is linked to the U.S. Defense Department. The military covers $253,000 of the program's $805,000 budget. The rest comes from the district's general fund.

"There's a practical dimension as far as is this the best use of our money," Phillips said. "That's linked to the moral issue of should we be having programs in our schools which for one are militaristic and for two are linked to a homophobic institution."

Phillips' stance is a turnaround from last year, when he supported the funding of Junior ROTC in the schools. Some have speculated that the move was politically motivated, since until three weeks ago Phillips was running for the state Assembly seat being vacated by Willie Brown. He dropped out of the race in late May.

Phillips called his change of mind "growth."

"The whole hazing incident at Balboa demonstrated there is a level of blind obedience to authority among these students," he said. "I'm not sure that's a quality we want to develop."

Junior ROTC came under attack last year after reports surfaced that three drill team members had been beaten in a hazing ritual at Balboa. A subsequent city investigation found that beatings were commonly used to punish team members.

"No program that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and disability should be allowed in the schools," he said. "No program that brings guns into the schools should be allowed in the schools.

"I'm confident we can find some nonviolent, nondiscriminatory program that could meet their (the students') needs."

Cadets want it saved&lt;

But students in the program say nothing would address their needs the way ROTC has.

Balboa High junior Emily Lopez, 17, is a cadet lieutenant colonel and will be the commander for Balboa's Junior ROTC next year. The program, she said, helped pull her out of her shyness.

"It's given me self-esteem and a lot of leadership abilities," Lopez said. If the school board eliminates the program, she added, "I'd feel empty inside. I've been in the program for three years. It's taught me how family really works. Without it, a part of me is gone, too.

"I don't see the board coming out and talking to students," she said.

Sgt. Major Beau Conley, a Junior ROTC teacher at Balboa, said the program went beyond what most people imagine of a military class.

Conley, for example, monitors his students in other classes. Teachers are inclined to talk to him before going to parents or the dean if a student falls academically, he said. And he works with the student to get the grades up, he said.

"The Junior ROTC teaches kids that they have to be responsible and accountable for their actions, whether in an ROTC class, another class or life in general," Conley said. "We hold them accountable for their actions.